OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Washington to Charlotte

331 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DCA–CLT arrive on time 75% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate75%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay55 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled3.2%of scheduled flights

based on 2,669 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • American Airlinesbest
    On-time77%
    Medianon time
    p9050 min
    Cancel3.1%
    Flights2,355
  • PSA Airlines
    On-time64%
    Medianon time
    p9080 min
    Cancel3.8%
    Flights314

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline28%
  • Weather5%
  • Air traffic (NAS)12%
  • Late aircraft55%
  • Security1%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline9%
  • Weather86%
  • Air traffic (NAS)5%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 85 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly DCA → CLT

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 84% on time.

  • Mornings84% on time · p90 20 min · 3,246 flights
  • Middays79% on time · p90 45 min · 2,766 flights
  • Overnights77% on time · p90 30 min · 194 flights · limited
  • Afternoons73% on time · p90 75 min · 799 flights
  • Evenings62% on time · p90 85 min · 2,123 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 73% to 81% on time.

  • Saturdays81% on time · p90 35 min · 1,301 flights
  • Tuesdays78% on time · p90 50 min · 1,293 flights
  • Mondays77% on time · p90 45 min · 1,310 flights
  • Wednesdays76% on time · p90 60 min · 1,299 flights
  • Sundays75% on time · p90 55 min · 1,314 flights
  • Thursdays75% on time · p90 50 min · 1,295 flights
  • Fridays73% on time · p90 65 min · 1,316 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.